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Month: July 2017

It seems like Isaiah Thomas burst onto the scene as a young player last year, carrying the mantle as the leader of the Boston Celtics.

Some might be surprised to know Thomas has been in the league for six seasons now, while playing on three different teams, and until last season was best known for usually being the shortest player on the court.

Now, Thomas is a two-time All-Star breaking the hearts of countless players on opposing teams.

Thomas was at his best again Saturday in a 112-108 overtime win against the Bucks. Thomas had 37 points and eight assists, while hitting 6 of 11 shots from beyond the arc.

“The ban was half-ass, half-baked,” Cuban said, per a transcript of the interview. “If the goal was security, why do you leave off any other countries that hosted terrorism?” Critics noted that Saudi Arabia and Egypt, to cite just two countries, were not listed in the order.

Cuban saw the episode as an example of Trump’s inexperience in government and disarray within his administration.

“In my mind, if he was presidential, he could have said, ‘Look, I want to do A, B and C, but I want to get all of my Cabinet in place, I want to make sure I have everybody vested. Because I know every liberal and every (Hillary) Clinton supporter is going to go bananas when I put this out. And I want every I dotted and Ts crossed because I’m just going to ram it down their throat and do what’s best for the country.'”

People have suggested Cuban should run for president himself. He hasn’t shown much inclination to do that. On Tuesday, he did encourage people to get involved in the political process.

“Twenty-five percent of the people voted against [Trump], 23 percent voted for him,” Cuban said, using percentages of the entire U.S. voting population. “What those (other) 52 percent do, I think, is the most important thing that happens right now. Because that’s what’s going to change the balance of power in all the polls and that’s what he’ll listen to.”

Let’s scrap the entire format and have a half-court 3-on-3 tournament instead.

Under our 3-on-3 tournament format, there are six teams of five players. Each division is represented with squads of three starters and two reserves.

There are two groups of three teams, split between East and West. There’s a round-robin within each group. Games are to 15 (baskets count as 1 point, or 2 from behind the arc; you’ve played on the playground before, you get what we mean).

The top two teams from each group advance to the semifinals. Point-differential would be used to break ties within a group.

But the Warriors will shift their offense back to its roots, with Klay Thompson and Steph Curry as the focus, and Draymond Green getting more play calls. McCaw will be the fourth wheel. He has had mixed results as a 3-point shooter this year, making 34.1 percent from the arc, and has been in a slump over his last 10 games (22.2 percent on 3s in that span). He can be a better shooter than his numbers have shown, though.

Popovich said he and his coaching counterparts all feel badly about fans not getting to see star players after paying top dollar for tickets, but he stressed teams have longer-term goals to consider.

Authentic Mens Stefon Diggs Jersey The Bulls (36-39) got a game-high 28 points from Nikola Mirotic and another 25 points from Jimmy Butler to keep their playoff hopes alive. Chicago moved within a game-and-a-half of the Heat and Pacers for the final spot in the Eastern Conference.

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An NBA season is a six-month test of strength. No matter where your team lands in the standings, there will be constant challenges. In order to maintain sanity, a season needs bright spots. For the Suns, their shining moment came in the form of a 70-point outburst from second-year star Devin Booker on Friday night.

Indeed, the Celtics won the game, but Booker won the crowd. He finished 21 of 40 from the field, 4 of 11 from the 3-point line and 24 of 26 from the free-throw line. Hardened Celtics fans cheered all the buckets, much to the derision of Jae Crowder and other Celtics. As annoyed as Celtics players were after the game, the Suns still take pride in the moment.K.J. Wright Authentic Jersey
Williams has been a point guard for most of his NBA career, but he’s more than capable of sliding over to the two. According to Basketball Reference, he logged 80 percent of his minutes at shooting guard when he won Sixth Man of the Year with the Raptors in 2014-15, and he spent nearly half of his minutes there with the Lakers last season.

The reason Williams can play the two despite being a 6-1 guard is because he’s an excellent shooter across the board. In addition to knocking down close to 40 percent of his 3-point attempts this season, he ranks in the 79.3 percentile with 1.11 points per spot-up possession. His effective field goal percentage in catch-and-shoot situations is 58.0 percent, too, which is a similar rate to the likes of Eric Gordon, Kevin Love, Bradley Beal and Paul George.

As is the case with Russell Westbrook and LeBron James, you can never have too many shooters surrounding Harden. The more space he has to work with, the harder the Rockets will be to slow down.

However, one has to wonder if the Kings have more faith in his ability than they should at this stage. As mentioned above, Hield is having a substandard rookie season, plus he is already 23 years old — just three years younger than the player he was traded for in Cousins. There is room there for improvement, especially given how hard he works, but one has to wonder if he’s the right centerpiece in a trade like this, especially given how little else is coming to the Kings here.

I know if Bobby smacks my hand as hard as he did again, we’re going to go toe-to-toe, Butler said after the game. I told Bobby to stop doing that. It’s good that he’s so fired up and has all that energy. Just don’t smack my hand like that.

Portis was apologetic for his actions.

I’m a guy that plays with a lot of emotion, plays with a lot of grit, Portis said, via ESPN. I really wasn’t trying to smack him hard, that’s just — when I play basketball I’m not even on the planet. I’m in another world. I was locked in, I hit his hand hard, and after I sat down and thought about it I’m like, ‘Damn, I did hit his hand pretty hard.’ He kind of joked around with me.

Grizzlies forward Chandler Parsons is out indefinitely as he deals with a partial tear of the meniscus in his left knee.

Memphis general manager Chris Wallace announced the news Monday in a team statement.

Aldridge has experienced minor heart issues a couple of times before during his career. He missed the final nine games of his rookie season in 2007 after being diagnosed with Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, a heart condition that can cause an irregular heartbeat. He also missed time early in the 2011-12 season when symptoms arose again.

The 31-year-old forward is averaging 17.3 points and 7.4 rebounds per game this year.

The news comes at a bad time for the Spurs, who are already without Kawhi Leonard, who is in the league’s concussion protocol. Tony Parker and Dejounte Murray will also miss Saturday’s game against the Warriors.

We’ve obviously seen James play a similar role to Harden throughout his career as the initiator on offense, but he’s never had his hands on as many possessions as Harden this season. He has, however, come close on four occasions: James has posted a usage rating of at least 33.5 percent four times in his career, including a career-high 33.8 percent in 2008-09.

As you can see in the table below, his averages over those four seasons come out to 29.9 points, 7.5 rebounds and 7.5 assists per game, which isn’t far off of Harden’s average of 29.1 points, 11.2 assists and 7.9 rebounds per game this season.

Mens Paxton Lynch Jersey That’s a far cry from his All-Star season in San Francisco when he hit .315 with 23 home runs in 117 games.

Mens Janoris Jenkins Jersey Sandoval was on rehab assignment in Pawtucket with an ear infection. He’s owed $18.6 million for 2018 and another $18.6 million in 2019, according to CSNNE.com, after originally signing a a five-year, $95 million contract.

Cardinals rookie Magneuris Sierra is just 21 years old, but that has not stopped him from feeling right at home in the majors. Sierra was a perfect 4 for 4 at the plate in a 4-3 loss to the Pirates. Sierra set a club record with a hit in the first nine games of his MLB career with Sunday’s performance that included a stolen base and run scored.

If there is any reason the Mets don’t trade Jacob deGrom, it’s because they simply can’t rely on any of their other starters to be consistent. Example? Steven Matz tossed one inning Sunday and allowed nine hits and walked a batter in 39 pitches. He was removed after the inning, but that did not spare him his third loss of the season in the Mets’ 13-4 loss to the Rockies.

Jackie Bradley Jr. is not one to be outdone. After Marlins outfielder Marcell Ozuna robbed Dodgers outfielder Kike Hernandez earlier in the day, Bradley took a home run away from Yankees rookie Aaron Judge with a remarkable catch in right-center.

Cubs (46-45) at Braves (45-45) 7:35 p.m. ET鈥?The hottest team in baseball not named the Dodgers or the Astros? It’s not the Cubs. The Braves are 16-8 since July 17. The only two teams with better records than that are the Astros and Dodgers. The Cubs may be rejuvenated after their trade for Jose Quintana but the Braves are playing very well and Julio Teheran (7-6, 4.79 ERA) is ready to go. Jon Lester (5-6, 4.25) will be looking to improve on one of the worst outings of his career his last time out.

Let’s take a look at the deals, and give grades for the teams involved.

Limited Kids Jerry Rice Jersey (Teams can’t officially sign players until the moratorium period ends Thursday at 12:01 p.m. ET, so all details below are based on reports. Follow Sporting News’ free agency tracker to see the original report for each contract and the specific terms of each deal.)

Young even had a decent season on the defensive end of the floor with the Lakers. Following an Achilles injury in December, Lakers head coach Luke Walton — who likely put in a good word for Young as a former assistant coach of the Warriors — told the media they’d miss Young’s defense because he usually guarded the opposing team’s best perimeter player.

It’s not just the shooting we’ll miss, Walton said. We’ll miss the defense, the energy he brings and the confidence he and his teammates get when he hits big shots.Limited Kids Ramon Humber Jersey
It was a side of Young we hadn’t seen consistently throughout his career, and it’s one the Warriors are expecting him to maintain next season. Being able to make 40.0 percent of his 3-point attempts would make him a great addition to the Warriors, regardless of how he performs defensively, and he has the potential to become a valuable bench player for them if he continues to guard players at a high level. He won’t be expected to do it as often as he did for the Lakers — he won’t get the minutes to do so and he might not see much court time against starting units — which should help him make a difference in shorts spurts like we saw with JaVale McGee last season.

After engaging in active discussions with LeBron James, free-agent forward Jeff Green has agreed to a one-year, $2.3 million deal with the Cavaliers, ESPN.com reported.

In what would be a more significant move, cleveland.com has reported that guard Jamal Crawford has reached out to James to express his interest in joining the Cavs as well.

Detroit missed the playoffs last season as Jackson dealt with injuries, Andre Drummond regressed, and Stan Van Gundy’s bench couldn’t keep his team in games. This trade would essentially be a cash dump for Detroit, as Jackson is still owed $51 million over the next three seasons.

Elite Womens Darren Helm Jersey Jackson signed a five-year, $80 million deal before the 2015-16 season after being traded from the Thunder at the 2015 deadline.Elite Womens Derrick Thomas Jersey
The Pistons recently traded power forward Marcus Morris to the Celtics for shooting guard and defensive stud Avery Bradley. After finishing last in the Central Division for the second time in three years, the Pistons are clearly in the process of a roster overhaul.

Drummond was linked with a number of teams before last season’s trade deadline, including the Celtics, so he could be wearing a new jersey before the regular season starts as well.

Morris was not 100 percent in Game 2, but he played 27 minutes and was a plus-10 on a night in which only he and Gortat (plus-4) were positives in that category.

Wall credits Morris’ versatility, but he wants the rest of the defense to catch up. “We have to do a better job of knowing which guys are shooters and making them put the ball on the floor,” Wall said. “We can live with contested 2s and contested shots at the rim, but to give them spot-up 3s, that is what this team does.”

Wall can take some solace. The Celtics did the same thing to the Bulls in the first round of the playoffs, with 36.0 percent of their shots coming as open or wide-open 3s. Boston’s high-screen game, especially with Horford, is tough to stop. But the Bulls are all home now, and if the Wizards hope to avoid the same fate, they will need to address their open 3-pointer problem.

Rondo was the proverbial straw that stirred the Bulls’ drink as the crux of Chicago’s offense at TD Garden. He was also fabulous on the defensive end of the court with five steals.

Think of all the superstars who have worn the Celtics uniform through the years, from old-school giants like Bob Cousy and Bill Russell to 1980s stars Larry Bird and Kevin McHale to more recent heroes like Paul Pierce. Only one Celtic, John Havlicek, scored more points (54) than Thomas’s 53 in a Boston playoff game.

And Thomas scored 29 of those 53 points in the fourth quarter and overtime. That’s about two-thirds of the points (45) the Celtics scored as a team during that span. The All-Star guard’s biggest points might have come with 1:07 left in overtime, with Boston clinging to a 3-point lead. Thomas hit a 15-foot jumper despite being fouled, then finished the three-point play at the free-throw line as the Garden crowd chanted “MVP.”

Kevin Durant made a huge decision last year when he chose to sign with the Warriors, and he said Thursday on the Warriors Plus/Minus podcast, I’m not going through that again.

The All-Star forward doesn’t plan on leaving the team he just joined, even though he’ll likely opt out of his contract and become a free agent this year. Considering all of the contracts and star players at Golden State, Durant won’t be able to get a max deal, so he’ll have to take a pay cut if he wants to stay.Wade Davis Authentic Jersey
We’ve played very well. I’m sure they did some things that they want to improve on and they can do better at, but we have too, so we’ll take it.

It’s only the second time in NBA history that an eighth seed has won the first two games of a series while on the road. For Wade, the surprise success is completely new, but he is running with it.Scottie Upshall Authentic Jersey
I’ve been in the league 14 years, Wade said. I’ve never been in this situation, being an eighth seed, or being a lower seed, and have won the first two games on the road. So this is uncharted waters for all of us. But what we can do is what we’ve started to do. And that’s focus on each possession, focus on each play, try to win those.

Game 3 will be back in Chicago Friday night, but Wade said he expects the Celtics to come thundering back to try and punish the Bulls for those first two losses.

This is a good team, Wade said. They’re not a No. 1 seed for no reason.